A secretive new breed of spending groups is changing the way campaigns are being lost and won

At the moment, Mitt Romney's worst nightmare is an earnest former aide to Newt Gingrich named Rick Tyler, who sits on a $5 million pile of cash that he plans to turn into a negative ad campaign aimed at the former Massachusetts governor.

Tyler runs Gingrich's super PAC--a theoretically independent committee of affluent Newtniks who have been working since last month to help the former House Speaker win the GOP nomination. Arriving just in time for the 2012 race, thanks to a landmark Supreme Court decision, super PACs are outraising and outspending the campaigns, supposedly without any coordination with the candidates.